Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I have so much to say, I feel like weeks are years bc so much has happened! And I forgot to tell you the best news last week. Elder Bednar is coming to our mission!!!! yes Elder B is coming this friday! i am so excited!! an apostle has yet to come for about two years or so. I love how whenever im struggling or need something the lords sends me an apostle, last time it was elder holland and this time elder bednar... its going to be great!Brazil is sooo great! im loving it... thats wierd mom that venda nova looked clean on google maps well i guess parts are clean but where i live is really poor. the culture here is really different but i love it. its always really loud that can be a good or bad thing sometimes, they are always playing american music too justin beber is always playing ha. Everyone thinks me and sister clement are twins bc we are blonde and blue eyed, no one can ever say my name its really hard here in minas bc they dont pronounce the r like they do in sao paulo. so my name is sister cooobeein or something like that i need to find out how to say my name ha. the women here are really open about there babies they let them breast feed up until they are three or four kind of awk.. o did i mention the food is amazing.. MOM they make the best empinada i would eat it everyday if i could soo good, they werent kidding about the bread and the cheese here its on every corner a little bread shop, dont get me wrong its way good but all i eat is bread ha and of course beans and rice and lottsss of meat!so everyday we walk everywhere finding and teaching people. its amazing to me how many times we teach a lesson somehow if we try our best we will feel the spirit. the brazilians are so accepting here. even if they dont like you or dont want to hear your message they will invite you in give you water and juice and make you eat something ha. so on friday we were trying to catch the bus to get to an appointment and we saw it coming and we ran for 2 mins screaming and yelling to make it stop it was hillarious. but if we had missed it i wouldnt have doubted we were supposed to. i dont get mad when things dont go according to plan bc sometimes our plans arent what our heavenly fathers plans are for us. this work is hard, im tired every min of the day, hungry usually, and still struggling with the language but no one said it was easy running the lords errand i guess i realy know now. the people we meet are amazing. the baptisms we had were amazing! but this work has its ups and downs like always. we had 20 people tell us they were coming to church on sunday, they committed to come and two showed up. we got up early running around town to wake people up. the hardest thing to do is getting them church. at church i stood up awkwardly as they introduced me ha and helped our investigators. the baptisms were after church and they were all excited except for camila, she is 17 years old and is sooo amazing. she was super nervous, so we just had to talk to her and help her understand what she was doing was right. when she got in the font she freaked out when the pray was over and wasnt sure what to do, she flung here had back in anticipation and yelled descupe descupe which means sorry. she is sooo cute she wanted to be baptized already that she was anxious enough to leave the elders arms into the water ahahah me and sister clement loved it. after we went to a members house to eat. they had an amazing cassarole. so here you have to eat two plates regardless if you are hungry so i did. and the father of the house said you done? i wasnt sure what to say he asked how many plates i had and i said two and he said you need at least three or four, he told me i ate like a little bird haha i was soo fulll i tried with all my might to eat half a plate. my prob is that the juice here is amazing!!! i just have to slow done keep it to one glass of juice and make sure they see me eat ha im working up strategies. they dont really eat dinner so your lunch is your one meal of the day.okay there are so many people we are teaching i dont ever know where to begin. Adilson is a married man waiting to be baptized. He killed someone ten years ago for his job as a security guard and is waiting to get approval of the 1st presidency. he has been wating for over a year and he is starting to loose faith we try to visit him twice a week to keep his hopes up. we also taught a woman named fabiani she has a 9 year old and 1 year old and she accepted to be baptized, that is not the hardest part here in brazil its getting past that and bringing them to church and keeping the commandments. and now i want to talk about juliana she is 22 and is so golden if she could only realize her potential. i have never wanted anything more then to speak this language. it is so hard when you have something you want to stay and dont have the words to say it. during a lesson i felt so strongly to bear my testimony of trials growing up in a high school with not many good influences around me and how sometimes it isnt easy to follow the lord but i told her it takes faith and after you trial of faith you will then only then receive blessings.. sometimes i cry during my testimonies bc all i want to do is share what is in my heart but i cant always find the words to say... i just collect myself and do the best i can putting all my faith in the spirit that they may feel the love that i feel for them. i pray every night for juliana to realize how much her heavenly father loves her. i didnt think i could feel so much love for someone i barely know. its just a slight glimpse of what our father in heaven feels for us. its amazing doin this work, its really hard, but its worth seeing the change in peoples hearts.this friday with elder bednar we are talking about faith. in D&C 8:9-10 comes to mind... remember that without faith you can do nothing therefore ask in faith..that i will grant unto you and you shall have knowledge concerning it. i try to have faith that i can still teach these people everyday with the little portugues i know, i know the lord is blessing me, he always does... first takes faith then action then your agency to reep the blessings.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Family!!!Wow I have so much to say! Im here in brazil with my new comp and she is great! But first ill start with my last week. And I dont have the blinking 30 min countdown so that is nice... also amber i have to buy the recording of zoe so i dont know when ill be able to listen to it but ill try next week.OK last week was amazing. I tried to take in everything i could before i left. On wed we learned a brasilian marshal arts it was so great i was sore for a week from doing high kicks ha ha. on thursday i had a really hard time with this brazilian that wasnt very nice and it was the first time that has happened so i prayed for patience and everything was okay and then i played basquete= basketball for the last time with all the elders and i got third place im going to miss playing. on saturday was our last offiicial class with our teachers and our last TRC which is when you go and teach in a situation and then you get evaluated. my comps and i did great. I felt really good about it. the other comps in my district were frusturated but my comps and i had been praying to do well and we did! then our morning teacher didnt show up and i was super bummed bc it was our last class. so this sister came in to replace him and i was kind of complaining cause she wanted us to practice more right after the trc. but there was a definite reason why our first teacher missed the bus. she bore her testimony and her story about the gift of tongues she had to learn two languages in her mission and it gave us alot of comfort. i no longer doubt why things change or dont always go as planned bc sometimes god needs you to hear something that you didnt know you needed.. Then on sunday it was the girls last meeting. this is where the new girls say where they are from and the old sisters like me bear their testimony. i was really nervous bc there were only brazilians and two americans. so they left me for last of course and i started really calm and collected and then it hit me.. im leaving. i looked at my good friend sister dunford and she was crying. she has meant alot to me this past three weeks and im going to miss her. i started to express how much i loved the ctm and i know that god will be there for me when i leave. by the end everyone was crying. it was super spiritual. afterwards my roommates and i prayed for comfort before bed and it was the most sincere pray i have ever felt. i felt like the spirit was telling me everything was going to be okay. on monday we took a ton of pics and said our last minute goodbyes. it was really bittersweet. mom- i will send the disc home asap. have you seen the videos we took or anything? my instructor will email you. o and i also met the woofindens they are so nice!so tuesday i left alone again. no one was flying with me so i was super nervous to get lost in the airport or something cause that would happen to me. but everything was fine i found and made it on the flight. i wasnt sure who to look for to pick me up. am sure i was wide and confused bc i walked right past my mission pres and his wife ha. before i knew it arms were around me saying bem vindo. ha it was the cute wife of the president. mom you would love her!!! i love her! she is so cute and little and stylish ha. they took me into the car and yes they speak a little english so it was nice. they took me to lunch bc i was the only one that got ´picked up. the place was so good, so much meat-dad you would love it. i got to know them and thier family and they told me all about belo. then he took me to the office had an interview and i met my companion!! she is AMERICAN yay her name is sister clement from logan utah. she is soooo great! this is her last transfer so i only have 4 more weeks with her. she loves to surf and has my same major ummm what ya so legit!!! she is so on top of it too she isnt slacking at all and i want to be just like her at the end. its a blessiing to have her. these past two weeks she has been with a member companion waiting for me. so i started asking how the area is going and she said well we have 3 baptisms on sunday....um what ya 3 BAPTISMS. my first one i get to have three!! im so excited! she is really hard working and as soon as we left we had 6 appointments.so my first appointment was with camila and roberto they are getting baptised on sunday and we had to teach them the plan of salvation. so i didnt know what to expect super nervous. o also my area is called venda nova its about an hour oustide of downtown belo. its super poor. and they were not kidding about the hills here so i broke out the chacos ah. anyway we get there and she said were here and i turned and this wooden door barely attatched, a man welcomed us in with open arms. there house is two rooms with dirt floor. i was so humbled because they were so happy. i felt the spirit so strong in our lesson even though i didnt say much other then my testimony. she said that she wanted them to feel the spirit really strong one more time before thier baptism and when she asked me to bear my testimony she said thats when they felt it the strongest. it was great my first real appointment in the mission field i loved it! some of the next appointments fell through but we found some more people. its the rainy season right now and you never know when it will down pour. all the sudden we were walking home and we heard this boom sound and she said its goingto rain and i was like what bam i was socked ha it was kind of funny cause that doesnt happen at home.okay i dont have much time left but i want to tell you about last night. well yes mom our pday is on wed but i didnt have enough time to email bc my comp had to go to the police office to renew her visa. we take the bus everywhere and my first experience on the bus was hilarious its like a ride you litterally fly when your in the back and pedestrians do not have the right away here ha i want everyone to experience the busses here i find excuses to take the bus ha. lauren- times the the u of u bus by ten. okay also the food here is so good i had an empinada yesterday and wanted to die it was so goood!!! okay so after pday is over at 6 we went tracting and had some appointments. my comp is so intune with the spirit she just goes places and i dont question it. okay the last door last night she goes okay well do this one and we can go eat it was 815 and we hadnt eaten all day, so instead of complaning i went with it. by the way the brazilians here are so nice they always give you water and let you in to give you food even if they dont want to here what you have to stay its actually kind of funny. so we clapped at this one door and a man said we could come in. it was a married evangelical couple. i loved them right away idk why i just did they were so nice and kind. i started the lesson well tried and said if you open your hearts you will feel the spirit. so then sister clement started teaching they had really good questions and were into it. she started talking about joseph smith and they were alittle confused but then she bore testimony and the room was silent the women looked at me and said she could feel it and showed me her arm with goosebumps. i was so happy. then she slowly preceded to ask if they would get baptized the 31 of oct and the husband after about 15 secs said yes and the wife also said yes! yayyyy i wanted to jump or do something. but the spirit was so strong i couldnt move. we made a second apptment and told them how happy i was for them. they were just ready to hear the gospel that was my first time to the holy ghost baring witness that they needed to take this step towards our heavenly father. after we said goodbye i did a little baptism dance my comp thought that was wierd but sometimes i think it is necessary. she is sooo great and i want to do my best to help her and learn from her before she leaves. im so blessed to be here i love it. its hard sometimes becuase your going none stop but i have already seen the blessings that come from obedience to this work. i have to go but i love you all and know that i have a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel everyone wants this everyone needs this in their lives we just have to show them how it can be done..

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Hi Everyone- Aubree will be leaving the Sao Paulo MTC this Tuesday, Oct. 19th. It is a 1 hour flight to Belo Horizonte. She will be flying solo to arrive at her mission destination. If you want to write her you can address all of her letters now to the Mission Home in Belo. She will not be able to check her emails until next week.

Aubree is so excited to begin her adventure as a full fledged Sister missionary- ready or not. She loves to have hand written letters, and reads them over and over many times. As her Mom, I just want to thank all of you for your love and support. Aubree notices and appreciates your consideration on her behalf. She loves the Lord and loves the opportunity she has to serve in the vineyard. Thank you for all your prayers on her behalf. Hoorah for Israel...she's on her way!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Hello family and friends- first off i would like to apologize for the craziness of my letters the keyboards here dont always work and the enter button doesnt work at all so all my thoughts are altogether. ill try harder to make it understandable. entao... i have some much i want to share with everyone but mom im writing you another letter through missionties. okays so last week wed we got to go to the police department to figure out our visa stuff and we ran into elders that have been there for 1 and 6 months they struggled speaking english to us it was hillarious this one elder was going home in two weeks and he couldnt put sentences together it gave us all hope that we will be able to speak one day.o and mom rememeber when you said you wont ever have to wash your skirts unless you spill on them ahah false i happen to manage to spill on my skirt once a day idk why it just happens so ihave been washing my skirts like crazy before i leave.on thursday amber my watch broke!! i was soo sad i put it on and bam on the marbles and everything on the floor i am currently watchless and miss my beautiful gift from you ha i cant put it bakc together im not that talented.. but i will try. okay so friday was our last to proselyte. it was so great. we all prayed that we would have good weather this time. it wasnt looking so good but right when we got into the bus.. sunny so beautiful. so we got dropped off at the exact location of last time and we were all excited and my elders of course were like you go first.. okay so we went up to this man already was a member uhh what thats wonderful we moved on then i said hey lets go sit with this man. we walked over and stared talking to him, he had lost of questions and we understood alot more of what they were saying this time he pulled out this little card and was trying to show us this scrip but the convo was going now where so we decided we would move on we said thank you but then all the sudden the wind picked up so bad my skirt was flying everywhere so i had to sit right back down just on the other side of him it was kind of awkward but i didn tknow what to do i remembered that i brought my rain coat so the elders gave it to me in hopes it would keep my skirt down. in this process the man scooted closer to me and said explain more.. i gave hime the book that he refused to take 30 secs ago and said i promise that if you read this book god will answer you prayers an let you know it is true. it took it from me and said i will! wellp looks like the lord wasnt done with him yet and he needed me to ask him one more time to take the book. i felt the spirit so strong when i walked away i wonder what will happen to those people that we give the book of mormons too. will they read it? will they call the number? i guess will never know until later. then one more story towards the end it was my turn and again and i went up to this man and started talking about the church he said he heard about it but was evangelical i kept talking to him anyway.. my comps said nothing i did it all by myself it was the first time i didnt need any back up. he took the book and was seemingly happy and so was i. we walked away and the elders said muito bom meaning very goood i feel like the language is coming..slowly very slow but coming. then our teacher took us around down town sao paulo and saw some historical sites.. have you gotten any pics yet? he said he would send them. then on saturday 26 elders got there visas and were coming from provo i was so excited we all ran downstairs to check luggages and i saw two of my other districts names we ran to lunch and they werent there so we waited and they all burst through the door and all of us that went to provo jumped up and met t hem at the door i was sooo happy my smile hurt. i gave not only two of them but 4 of them the biggest handshake of their life. one of the elders said this is what its going to feel like in the celestial kingdom haha.. reunion i talked to them the whole time and they filled me in on what i missed back in provo they said they kept doing my dance moves and never forgot about me i guess do wierd dance moves not on purpose but just when im excited or really happy.. sunday i finally gave a talk considering there is only 12 people in our branch me being the only sister ha. o and i finished the doctrine and convenants!! yay on monday me and elder turner taught a lesson together with no notes and just the bible it was great! okay this is going to be my last email for two weeks because im leaving next tues ahhhh yes my mtc life is coming to an end am i ready idk but i know i wont be alone when i leave but mom yes i am taking a flight its about an hour and yes i am going to be alone again bc no one is going to belo kind of sad but thats okay ill just have the best brazilians comps ever. anyway so today was my last time going to the temple for a very long time and i prayed for something i dont know exactly what but something special. we got there and this day just keeps getting better. i had this one name that a sister gave to me then about five min later another sister came up to me and said your last name is corbin right and i said yes and she goes well ihave a sisters name with the last name corbin.... what? yes all the way in brazil i did a corbin name int he sao paulo temple mom- her name is emaline corbin married to adam cooper dile in dec of 1842 in millcreek pa. it was so great! i felt the spirit so strong more then i ever have before and it was emotional having to say goodbye to the best place on earth for 16 months but i know the lord is sending me to do his work so people can have that same feeling i had today.. and it gets better we leave and me and sister dunford go sit on the bus early and the sister couple cant speak portugues really well and she asked if i would tell the bus driver about the temple and explain the book of mormon bc he had qeustions about his pass along card. so i bore testimony of the temple and how great it is to have in our lives. i love you all so much! i miss you all everyday but these scrips i read in the d and c just barely are great so read them when you get a change136 31-33 the lord is preparing us to meet him in his kingdom and the last one is 138 55-56 we are the chosen people...the lord expects us to fly so lets do it! love sister corbin

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

hellllo familia!!! what you went to az for conf sooo fun!!! i miss zoe and daners of course tay and ambs too! i didnt get to talk to gma? can she call me? and yes i have zero time always so i cant ever read emails please sign up for the missionties k i love you. ko so ill start from last week. um wed is pizza night there pizza is way different my fav is choc and banana pizza ask me how many slices i had um three nbd i got sooo sick that night i felt delirious our TE teacher was making fun of me cause my head hurt and i was speaking all kinds of wrong portugues ha o and i met this new sister! she is from pennsylvania and she knows jenna mettra she came up to me at dinner and just gave me a hug and i was like this is wierd and then she told me that was from jenna boo and it all made sense her name is sister dunford she is way cool she was born in rio and has dual citizenship so she knows alot of portugues already um on thursday i decided that i didnt knwo who to say this one word in portugues its super hard to pronounce its barulho and al the brazilians were helping me say it so now everywhere i go they just look at me and say that word aha its funny on friday o dont worry taught a whole lesson in portugues to brasilians without notes sooo hard! but it some how happened it was great pracitice. all the brazilians think im funny slash crazy bc i just shout random portugues words all the time. okay saturday! we had trc with brazilians with no notes no nothing. so i woke up getting ready for the lesson and yes my legs started itching for those of you that know me this is a bad sign when they itch they dont stop i went down stairs to class and it got worse i ran up stairs and wrapped my legs in blanket praying my heart out that it would stop so i could teach in 5 min! i got up and slowly walked downstairs and bam healed! umm what. thank you heavenly father. i love him. he is always answering my prayers here no matter how stubborn i am sometimes. so we taught our lesson it was recorded and also super intimidating. the first session of 15 min ididnt say much bc the brazilians were doing all the talking but the next 15 min part i wanted to talk and i felt the spirit guide what i wanted to say. i love being able to trust the spirit as a missionary. it just takes faith. at the end we watched ourselves and yes i sound horrible but when we left the room we listened to what they said and they said we did really good i dont if they were just being nice or what but im glad they understood some of the stuff we said. ok then it was conference sooooooooooo gooooood!!!! so good um okay so idk if you know this yet but we need missionaries especially in brazil we need 1000 missionaires here by dec or they are shutting down 6 missions which is nao bom soo i was like pres monson is going to talk about this and sure enough the second thing he said was go on missions!!! i love being in brazil its such a beautiful country and the people are great i cant wait to actually serve but also terrified that im leavin gin 2 weeks! so i want to take this opportunity and thank you mom and dad for all that you do this conference made me realize that i dont say it enough.. ILOVEYOU and THANKYOU for everything. you are why i am here today i am so blessed to have the best parents in the world alot brazilians here dont have the support at home like i do alot of thier families are not even members and it makes me sad cause they dont have the loving caring family in the gospel like i do. i just want to say thank you for bein who you are and the rest of the fam of course. i loved uctdorfs talk too... slow down.. take it easy or how dad would say thats it haha i love it. im trying to do that here slow down and focus on what really matters. you experience lots of ups and downs here bc its a different country different people and i feel alone sometimes bc i dont have a comp dont worry mom ill have one int he field but right now there are only three american sisters in the whole place. the advisary will drag you down at your weakest moment when i start thinking about how i cant speak portugues he tears me down but i have to stay positive and trust in the lord.. faith over fear right? then the next day conference soo good as well. on our break i was in my room writing and talking to sister dunford and noticed the other sister was crying i remembered what uctdorf said help other travelers in this journey i ran over to her and let her cry in my arms for like 5 min she was really home sick i cheered up and told her she was amazing then i went downstairs to get advice about my leg itchyness and found the couples wives croshaing(okay seriously cant spell in either lang) i walked in and we got to talking about sewing and how my mom is the best sewer in the world. you never know when or how you will meet someone but i want to meet everyone. all of gods children are unique and i can meet and remember the ones that come into my life the better i will become. conference was amazing i know you all loved it. then on saturday it was a big laugh fest everything is funny when your a missionary i dont know what we were laughing about but alli know is that we were laugh crying for 5 mins i felt like there was laughing gas in the room. then today my portugues roommates left for the field i wil miss them. my turn is around the corner! i miss and love you all! stay strong in this journey it will be well worth it in the end.

love sister corbin

ps im super sad about gma ihope she is doing alright i love you dad im glad we went and saw her befor i left. she is in my prays

pss i hope these letters make sense i cant speak any language at the moment and mom pday = tues please missiontie meeeeeeeee